Did I just see a tall man in a cat suit?

(aka Of all the days to leave the digital camera in the car)

We were at the Saturn dealership for more than an hour in support of my efforts to keep my (point of) VUE finely tuned. Usually this practice is quite boring, especially for the kids. While there is a playroom at the dealership, which is not unuseful, it is generally better equiped for toddlerish kids. The girls usually make use of it for the books and maybe a movie if there's one playing, but they often outgrow it quickly. So this time I had Darby bring her gameboy advance and Shelby brought a V-Tech PDA learning toy that she enjoys. I brought myself a technical book to read in support of some training I have next month.

While all of that turned out pretty well in that the kids were reasonably well entertained. It would figure that this would also be the one time that there was already entertainment on hand.

The place was packed. And with combinations of things you might not expect to find in one place, except maybe... on Saturn.

For some strange reason, they were having a blood drive at the dealership today. I can see it now, "honey, let's go give blood, and oh, while we're light-headed maybe we'll buy a car." Well, I guess to entice you to partake of the giving of blood, there was a tall guy in a cat suit, and another person in a blood suit. Yeah, I know, crazy. This wasn't just any cat suit mind you, it was a Cat In The Hat suit. I have no idea how that is supposed to make me want to give blood (not that I'm anti-blood-giving... I'm a two-gallon donor, so I've done my part). And then there was the blood suit. I just don't know what else to call it. It was a suit shaped like a drop of blood, with a great big smiley face on the front of it. Only my kids thought it was a red Hershey's kiss (which I guess would have been appropriate for the holiday), so it was interesting explaining to them that it was in fact a drop of blood. It was also interesting explaining why there was a drop of blood walking around, and why people give their drops of blood to begin with. I think my kids might have nightmares because of this. I don't know, something like count chocula chasing around the big red hershey kiss. Craziness I tell you.

But wait there's more!

In the midst of all of this, there was a live radio show going on. AM 640, "The Sports Animal", was doing a show, hosted by the locally famous Bob Barry, Jr. So what you had was crowds of people around the TV in the waiting area watching the OU basketball game, with the local sports authorities nearby reporting on it and other sporting news.

The dealership was supposed to be giving away a car in a drawing from those who gave blood (the more enticing incentive, rather than the creepy mascots), but that was to occur about forty-five minutes after we were done and ready to go.

But I tell ya, that whole hour of my life was strangeness that could not have been planned, expected, or believed, had I not seen it with my own eyes.